All Hell Breaks Loose S2 Ep22 23
by Bad Day at Black Rock
Summary: Sam disappears in a trail of sulfur, leading them on a chase to find the yellow eyed demon before its too late.
1. Chapter 1

Author's note: These fics are based on real episodes from Supernatural. The characters and plots belong to the creator and writers for the show. If you want background on the new character you can read the previous episodes.

All Hell Breaks Loose P1

_I just want to get out of here._ That's what she'd told him, so they got in the car and started driving. They didn't know where they were going yet. Dean still wasn't sure he should be looking for a case. He finally got up the nerve to just flat out ask her.

"So what do you want to do Kayla? Seriously. Do you want some down time? Because we don't have to go after anything right this second."

"We can do a job."

"Do you want to?"

She didn't really want another discussion. "Hey, so, Sam can read my mind."

"What?"

"You know, like hear my thoughts. Just sometimes though."

Dean turned and looked at him.

"It's getting more frequent. Apparently she's thinking harder."

"You're hilarious." He looked back at the road. "And when were you planning on telling me?"

"About the time you told me the truth about when I was possessed."

He sighed, irritated. "I'm all for you guys having these little chats, but you want to fill me in on the details next time? Christ." He took the next exit and pulled into a small café. "Don't forget the extra onions this time." Dean shoved a bill into Sam's hand.

He got out of the car with a grumble and walked into the café.

"So you told him, that's good. And now…he can read your mind. That's, interesting."

"And slightly creepy."

"Think happy thoughts."

The radio started to go out and the light faded on and off. Dean looked around cautiously as it continued to static.

Kayla suddenly felt uneasy. "Dean where's Sam?"

He looked ahead and didn't see anyone walking around in the diner. They both got out of the car and went inside, Kayla covered her mouth when she saw the bodies laying in pools of blood.

"Sam?" He drew his gun and continued his way through the café, behind the counter lay two more dead bodies. Jesus. Dean pushed the back door open and didn't see anything. As he pulled his hand back he felt some kind of powder. No, not powder. "Sulfur."

He ran outside and called for him over and over…there was no answer.


	2. Chapter 2

Kayla made him sit in that parking lot for half an hour before she'd give back the keys to the Impala. Told him he wasn't in a condition to drive. Kayla made all the phone calls so the information would come out rationally. She called Bobby and Ash in hope of finding the most recent demon activity hotspots. Once he'd convinced her he was calm, they burned the pavement to meet up with Bobby.

Four hours in the car listening to Kayla tell him they were going to find Sam, destroyed, just like that as Bobby laid an unmarked map in front of him. Unmarked as in no hotspots.

"This is it Dean, there hasn't been anything going on. It's been quiet in the demon community."

"How are we supposed to look for Sam? Just close our eyes and point?" His phone rang, it was Ash. "Tell me what you got Ash."

"_Dean, it's a big negative-o on Sam."_

"Don't tell me you didn't find anything Ash! We're looking at a ten thousand mile haystack!"

Kayla held her hand out and he shoved the phone into her palm. "Ash?"

"Listen, I did find something."

"What is it?"

"I can't talk over this line."

She rolled her eyes. "Ash, we don't have time for your government conspiracy bullshit. Tell me what you found."

"You'd better make time. This is gonna find Sam and…it's huge. Like really huge. Get here."

As the line clicked over she handed it back to him. "He says he found something big, we might as well go check it out."


	3. Chapter 3

They could smell the smoke before they even saw the building. Something wasn't right. Once they cleared the turn the ashes blew across their windshield and they stared at the charred remains of the Roadhouse. In the short amount of time it took them to get there not only had it burned down, the fire had died out.

"What the hell." Dean was the first out of the car. He sifted through piles of burnt boards, trying to avoid the bodies that were burnt to a crisp beneath the wreckage. "Do you see Ellen?"

Kayla avoided looking at the body. Instead she tried to salvage something, anything from Ash's room to suggest what he'd found, but there was nothing left. She couldn't even make out what was paper.

Bobby glanced at the body parts, looking for signs of clothing or jewelry. "I don't see her or Ash."

Dean found him. He recognized his watch. "Ah Ash, damn it."

There was no sign of what started the fire, though they had a pretty good idea of what was behind it. They couldn't find anyone that appeared to be Ellen, but it could just be for lack of remains.

"What the hell did Ash know? We got no way of finding Ellen, or knowing if she's even alive. There's nothing left so how the hell are we supposed to find Sam?"

Bobby nodded to him. "We'll find Sam."

Dean groaned quietly and hunched over in pain.

"Dean?" Kayla walked over to him. "Are you ok?"

He pressed against his temples and straightened up slightly, only to hunch over again. Finally he took a deep breath and looked at them.

Bobby raised an eyebrow. "What the hell was that?"

"I don't know, a headache?"

"You get headaches like that a lot?"

"No, must be the stress." He shook his head and looked reassuringly to Kayla. "I'm ok, I just…I swear I saw something."

"Like a vision? Like Sam has?"

"What? No. I'm not some psychic." He almost sounded nervous about the idea. Before he could come up with another explanation he was hunched over again, he leaned on the Impala for support.

Kayla touched his shoulder. "Dean what do you see?"

He groaned again and opened his eyes. "I saw Sam."

"So it was a vision."

"Yeah." He nodded to Bobby. "I don't know how but yeah. That was about as much fun as being kicked in the jewels." He definitely didn't envy his brother for the headache visions. "I saw a bell too. A big bell with some kind of engraving on it."

Bobby thought for a moment. "Was it a tree? An oak tree?"

"Yeah, exactly."

"I know where Sam was."

Kayla smiled, she was glad they went to him first. He just seemed to know everything about everything.


	4. Chapter 4

With all the chaos of hunting, and all the life and death situations they encountered, Dean never drove that car harder than he did trying to get to Sam. He made sure the tank was full and they weren't stopping for anything. Whatever that demon wanted out of Sam, he sure as hell wasn't getting it.

They pulled into the ghost town in the early evening. It was quiet, but if Sam was there no doubt he was being cautious. Everyone loaded up and they started to make their way through the streets.

On the other side of town Sam was getting his ass handed to him by Super Soldier. Sam took a blow from him that he was certain dislocated his shoulder. He was right about the enhanced strength, but he wasn't indestructible. Sam kicked him back against the fence and he fell through it onto the ground. Before he could get up, he grabbed a metal bar and blasted him across his face. Super Soldier went down. He didn't get up. _Asshole._

"_Sam!"_

He heard Dean's voice in the distance and turned towards it. "Dean?" He dropped the bar and followed the voice, grinning when he saw Dean, Kayla and Bobby coming towards him.

Dean breathed a sigh of relief that was cut short by fear.

In that half a second before your mouth can react he heard Kayla's thoughts blaring at him; _behind you!_

He started to turn as they all yelled at him but it was too late. The pain was intense but brief as the knife penetrated his spine; he hit his knees hard as he lost feeling in his legs. Kayla screamed, Bobby ran past him as Dean grabbed him by the shoulders. _Oh God Sam, no…_but her voice faded in his head.

"Sam! Come on man you're alright." Dean leaned over and looked at the wound; that fucker stabbed him in the spine while his back was turned. That fucking coward. "It's not even that bad. Sam!" He yelled at him, trying to get him to focus his eyes. "It's not even that bad, we're gonna patch you up. I'm gonna take care of you Sammy, that's my job right? Take care of my pain in the ass little brother huh?"

Sam's head dropped. All the noises died away and he couldn't hear Dean talking to him, or Kayla crying, he couldn't hear anything but his slowing heartbeat.

She felt it when it happened, like it had happened to her. Her breath caught in her throat as her heart stopped for an instant and she could feel the life go out of him. She gasped for breath and starting sobbing; Sam was dead.

Dean gripped his brother close to him as the tears ran down his face. How could he let this happen? He had one job that was important in his life, one. He had to protect his brother and now Sammy's dead.


	5. Chapter 5

All Hell Breaks Loose P2

Kayla looked up as Bobby's truck pulled into the driveway. He had gone to get something to eat, in the last few days no one had really thought about it. Bobby approached her on the porch and held out a bucket of fried chicken; she wasn't hungry but for survival purposes she took a piece anyway.

"Thanks Bobby."

"How's he doing?"

She shrugged with a quiet sigh. "He's not saying much."

"I hate to seem like I'm rushing things, because I'm not. But I thought I should ask him about the burial."

The thought of burying Sam made her eyes tear up again, she took a quiet breath to keep her voice from trembling too bad. "Maybe I should ask him. He's probably not going to respond too well and he won't get that mad at me."

"It's up to you."

She nodded and took the food from him. Dean was inside in the same spot as before; standing in doorway to the bedroom with a bottle of liquor in his hand. She set the bucket on the table and went up behind him, he didn't even turn his head. In the bedroom Sam lay on his back on the bed; he looked like he was sleeping.

"We shouldn't just leave him like this. Aren't you going to make preparations, like you did with John?"

Dean took another swig as he looked at his brother. "You mean torch the body?"

It sounded like an accusation. "Isn't that tradition with hunters?"

He didn't get mad, he tried to be understanding. "Yeah, just not yet."

She glanced to Bobby at the door and he went into the kitchen.

"Dean I think you guys should come with me." Bobby tried to be gentle.

"I'm not going anywhere." Dean sat at the table, bottle still clutched in his hand.

"Dean, please."

"Why don't you cut me some slack?"

"I just don't want you to be alone, that's all. To be honest I could use the help. Something big is going down, end of the world big."

"Then let it end!" Dean yelled at him.

Her heart went out for him, she wished there was something, anything she could do or say to make this easier on him and there just wasn't. Nothing would make this ok.

Bobby stared at him. "You don't mean that."

Dean stood and shoved the chair over. "I don't?" He had to restrain himself to keep from losing his temper. "You don't think I've given enough? You don't think I've paid enough? I'm done with it, _all_ of it. If you know what's good for you you'll turn around and get the hell out of here."

Bobby just looked at him; he didn't know what to do.

"Go!" Dean shoved him back then grimaced, he didn't mean to put his hands on him like that. He shouldn't have yelled. "I'm sorry. Bobby, I'm sorry. Please just go." He picked the chair back up and gripped the back of it, staring hard at the table.

"You know where I'll be." He walked out.

Kayla slid her hand over his clenched fist. "Hey."

"Kayla go with Bobby."

"I'm not leaving you here like this."

"Kayla!" He regretted yelling at her too, he lowered his voice. "Go, with Bobby. He needs help. I just need time to think."

She sighed quietly. "If that's what you want."

"That's what I want." He kissed her out of habit on the forehead but there was nothing behind it, he didn't feel anything right now. He was empty.

Kayla ran to catch up with Bobby before he left and climbed into the truck. "I guess I'm coming with you."

"You think it's safe for him to be by himself?"

"I think we don't really have an option."


	6. Chapter 6

Dean sat in front of him for a long time. He was looking at a body that wasn't going to move, wasn't going to open its eyes. A kid who had his whole life taken from him, Sammy wasn't even thirty. He could have been anything, done anything and this is how it ended.

"You know when we were little, you couldn't have been more than five, you just started asking questions."

He smiled slightly to himself, remembering. Sammy had always been smart, even as a kid. Too smart for his own good.

"Why don't we have a mom? Why do we always have to move around? Where'd dad go? Because he'd always take off for days at a time. I remember I begged you, quit asking Sammy, you don't want to know."

He laughed quietly but the truth of it wasn't funny. It wasn't then.

"I just wanted you to be a kid for a little while longer. I was trying to protect you, keep you safe. Dad didn't even have to tell me, it was just always my responsibility you know? It's like I had one job, that one job, and I screwed it up."

His voice trembled and he leaned forward but he had to talk to him, he had to tell Sammy everything he should have told him before.

"I blew it, and for that I'm sorry." A tear fell to the floor and he wiped his eyes before the rest of them did. "I guess that's what I do. I let down the people I love. I guess now I'm just supposed to let you down. How am I supposed to do that Sammy? What am I supposed to do huh?" He stood. "What am I supposed to do?"

He asked but he knew. He knew what he had to do. The Impala tires burned pavement all the way to the crossroads, it threw gravel and dirt into the grass as it came to a stop at the intersection. He can fix this, he _would_ fix this. Right now.

Of course everything he needed was in the trunk. The graveyard dirt, the bone from a black cat, a photograph of Dean-one of his fake IDs. They all went into the small tin and he quickly buried it at the center of the crossroads. Showtime.

Thirty seconds was too long. "Show your face bitch!"

"Easy sweetheart, you'll wake the neighbors." Her eyes flashed red as he turned and looked at her. She smiled. "Dean, it is so, so good to see you. Look at you, went and got your family killed, sent the girlfriend away, all alone in the world. It's too sweet. You'll have to excuse me for a moment, sometimes you have to stop and smell the roses."

"I should send you straight back to hell."

"Oh you should, but you won't. Following in daddy's footsteps, you want to make a deal. Little Sammy back from the dead and let me guess…you're offering up your own soul?"

"There's a hundred other demons that would love to get their hands on it, and it's all yours. All you gotta do is bring Sam back. Give me ten years, then you come for me."

She raised an eyebrow. "You must be joking. You're not just anyone Dean, you don't get the same deal." She approached him. "Keep your gutter soul, it's too tarnished anyway."

"Nine."

"No."

"Eight."

"Keep going, I'll keep saying no."

"Ok, five years. Five years and my bill comes due. That's my last offer. Five years or no deal."

She smiled. "Then no deal."

"Fine."

"Fine." She started to walk away, her smile only growing as she knew how desperate he was. "Make sure you bury Sam before he starts stinking up the joint."

"Wait." She turned. "What do I have to do?"

"First of all stop groveling, needy guys are such a turn off." She walked back over to him. "Look, I shouldn't be doing this, I could get in a lot of trouble. But what can I say? I've got a blind spot for ya Dean. You're like a puppy, you're too fun to play with. I'll do it."

"You'll bring him back?"

"I will. And because I'm such a saint, I'll give you one year and one year only. But here's the thing. If you try to weasel your way out of it, the deal's off. Sam drops dead and he's back to rotting meat in no time. So, it's a better deal than your dad got. What do you say?"

He kissed her hard, sealing the deal before he could think about it. He couldn't think about the consequences, all he could think about was Sammy, and he was coming back.


	7. Chapter 7

Kayla had her head in her palm as she clicked onto the next news article. She had to put a lot of effort into focusing.

"Here's another one of those heavy lightning storms."

Bobby looked over and turned to the map laid out on the table. "Where's it at?"

"Lander, Wyoming."

He scanned the paper and pointed to it. "Close again, but there's still that dead zone with no activity."

"Maybe they're having a meeting to compare evil deeds."

"It might be a meeting. There's definitely something going on in the area."

They exchanged glances as there was a knock at the door. Bobby went into the next room, Kayla continued looking through articles but leaned back to listen.

He opened the door and was baffled to silence as Dean and Sam stood on the porch. What was he even supposed to say to that?

Sam nodded to him. "Hey Bobby."

"Sam." He paused. "It's good to see you, up and around."

"Yeah."

"Sam?" Without thinking she hurried to the door. "Oh my God." She hugged him, then kissed him firmly before wrapping her arms around him again.

Dean watched as Sam returned the hug, even though he was obviously thrown off. Leave it to Kayla _not_ to overreact.

"Wow." He looked at Dean.

He shrugged. "We didn't know if you were gonna make it man."

She stepped back to Dean and the reality of it hit her; Kayla instantly went pale but she smiled to Sam. "I'm glad you're ok."

"I caught that."

"I um," she paused and covered her mouth briefly to keep from tearing up. "I gotta get something out of the car. Bobby why don't you show them what you found?" She gave Sam another quick hug before retreating out the door.

Sam looked questioningly to his brother.

"What? She was worried about you, you know how she is."

Bobby took them to the map. "We found a lot of something, we're just not sure what it means. There's been demon omens, tons of it that popped up out of nowhere. Lightning storms, cattle deaths, all over the place except right here." He pointed. "Southern Wyoming."

Sam looked at the map. "Wyoming?"

"Yeah, there's a dead zone right here where nothings happening. It's almost as if the demons are surrounding the place. Sam why don't you take a look at the information, see if you can find something I missed."

"Yeah, sure."

"Come on Dean, I have some more books in the truck. Help me carry them in."

He grimaced but followed him outside; this wasn't going to be pretty. He'd take it though, he'd take anything they could throw at him for Sam.

Bobby didn't waste time in yelling at him. "What did you do?!" He stepped in when he didn't answer. "You made a deal didn't you?!"

Dean glanced over at Kayla, who'd already made this assumption and was wiping the tears from her eyes.

"I couldn't let him die Bobby, he's my brother."

"How long did they give you?"

"Bobby?"

"How long?!"

He sighed. "A year."

A year? Kayla walked over to him. "How could you make that deal Dean? One year?"

"I didn't have a choice!"

Bobby was back on him now. "I could just throttle you boy! How is he gonna feel knowing that you're going to _hell?_ How did you feel when John went for you?"

Miserable. "You can't tell him." He looked between them. "Please don't tell him." He focused on Kayla. "_You_ can't even _think_ about it."

Kayla shook her head and went inside, catching the door before it slammed shut.

Sam looked up. "You ok?"

"Yeah, yea I'm fine. You were just hurt bad, I didn't know how it was gonna go."

He smiled. "Ok, but simmer down would ya? You're making me nervous."

She nodded and hugged him again, there was no denying she was overwhelmed with relief to have him back.

He watched her sit down, observing her facial expressions. "So Bobby really took care of a wound like that? A stab wound to the back?"

"Yeah, pretty incredible. I myself was vouching for a hospital."

"You know I have this weird feeling that you're holding back."

"That's funny because I was just having a weird feeling that you weren't believing a word that was coming out of my mouth."

"Kayla."

Dean and Bobby came back in…with Ellen in tow. Kayla threw her hands up and put her head on the table. "Can we start drinking now?"

"I'll second that." Ellen agreed.


	8. Chapter 8

Ellen had brought a map left in the safe of the roadhouse, Ash had told her about it before he was killed in the fire. The map was of Wyoming and it marked five abandoned churches that surrounded the dead zone Bobby had found. After everyone pitched in on the research, it turned out that the churches were linked by private railroad tracks, conveniently shaped as a devils trap. A 100-mile devil's trap to be exact. The question of the day was whether the trap was trying to keep demons out, or if it was trapping something in.

After linking everything together, Sam figured this is why the demon wanted one of the psychics now. Someone had to cross that iron barrier for him. There was something going on in a cemetery in the center of the trap, and they needed to get there before Jake did.

They arrived at the old cowboy cemetery right before nightfall and waited quietly for whatever the hell was going to happen. Kayla thought they were pretty quiet but you could have damn near heard a pin drop when Jake started approaching.

Sam stepped up first and walked out with his gun on him. "Hey Jake."

He turned and saw Sam, then the other four people walking towards him with guns. Not very good odds.

"You were dead, I killed you."

"Yeah? Well next time finish the job."

"I _did._ I cut clean through your spinal cord, there's no way you can be alive right now. You can't be."

Sam gave a side glance to the others, who were all suddenly avoiding eye contact with him.

"Just take it real easy there Jake." Bobby told him.

"Or what? You'll kill me?"

Sam gripped his gun. "It's a thought."

"You had your chance, you couldn't."

"I won't make that mistake twice."

Jake chuckled, Dean didn't think any of this was funny. "What are you smiling at bitch?"

"Hey lady." Jake looked at Ellen. "Why don't you put that gun to your head for me?" His eyes flashed gold and Ellen did what he told her to. "Ava was right, once you give in to it there's all sorts of shit you can do."

"Shoot him." Ellen begged.

"She might shoot herself before you get a shot off. Now everyone put your guns down, except you sweetheart."

Everyone put their guns down. Jake turned quickly towards the door and shoved the colt into the opening. Dean and Bobby grabbed Ellen and jerked the gun away as it fired off, thankfully not hitting anyone. The shot was followed by one, two, three, four…four shots into Jake's chest.

Sam walked around in front of him, his eyes filled with rage. He tried to reason with him and he stabbed him in the back.

Jake held his hand up, begging for his life. "Don't, please."

Sam fired another two rounds into him.

"Sam." He looked at Kayla. "I think you got him."

They looked at the door, the carved lock was slowly winding in circles.

"Shit." Bobby looked at it as Dean pulled to colt away. "It's hell. Everybody take cover!"

The tombstones were less than adequate coverage but it was all they had. As the door opened hundreds of clouds of smoke poured out in streaming lines. Kind of like…demon smoke.

"What the hell just happened?!" Dean yelled over the noise.

"It's a damned door, a gateway to hell! We gotta get that thing shut!" Ellen moved first towards the door.

Dean looked at the colt, could it be _the_ colt? He turned and saw yellow eyes, of course it was the colt. He raised it towards him only to have it ripped out of his hands.

The demon tilted his head and held onto the colt. "Boys shouldn't play with daddy's guns."

Suddenly Dean was airborne and slammed face first into a headstone; that was definitely gonna leave a mark. He struggled to sit up. Sam saw him from the door and tried to run over to him, only to be knocked up against a tree.

"I'll get to you in a second champ!" The demon grinned. "But I'm proud of you, knew you had it in ya." He walked back over to Dean, using his power to press him up against the stone. "Sit a spell."


	9. Chapter 9

Bobby, Ellen and Kayla were desperately trying to get that door shut. It was harder than it sounded, fighting back hundreds of demons while worrying about the two with yellow eyes.

The demon walked up and kneeled in front of him. "So Dean, I gotta thank you. You see, demons can't resurrect people unless a deal is made. I know, red tape, it'll make you nuts. But thanks to you, Sammy's back in rotation. I wasn't counting on that but hey, I liked him better than Jake anyway. Tell me, have you ever heard the expression 'if a deal is too good to be true it probably is'?"

"You call that deal good?" His head was throbbing, a drink sounded good about now.

"It was a better shake than your dad got. And you never wondered why, I'm surprised at you. I mean," he moved in closer to him so he could lower his voice. "You saw what your brother just did to Jake, pretty cold right? How certain are you that what you brought back was one hundred percent, pure, Sam?"

Dean glanced over its shoulder at Sam up against the tree. The thought had crossed his mind.

"You of all people should know that what's dead should stay dead. Anyway, thanks a bunch." He got to his feet and backed up. "I knew I kept you alive for a reason. Until now anyway."

Dean swallowed. _You gotta be kidding me._

"I couldn't have done it without your pathetic self-loathing, self-destructive desire to sacrifice yourself for your family." He raised the colt and cocked it.

It could have been the end. Dean looked past the demon and saw…his dad. He appeared behind him and grabbed hold of the demon, forcing it out of its host body. As he struggled with it, Dean grabbed the colt. The demon managed to knock John off of him and seep back into the body, but it was too late. He shot off one, just one bullet into its chest. And damn did it feel good.

He staggered, shocked, and started lighting up like Christmas morning. Hell it seemed like Christmas morning as he watched the life go out of him. He finally killed the bastard.

The door was finally shut and the lock circled back into place. Everyone turned to see John Winchester push himself off the ground and go to his boys. He stepped forward and put a hand on Dean's shoulder, not saying a word. After a moment he smiled and a tear ran down his face, he turned and offered Sam the same reassuring, loving smile before stepping back and disappearing again in a wave of light.

Both the guys had tears in their eyes but they walked up to yellow eyes, laying dead on the ground. Finally where he should be. It was barely believable after all this time.

Dean looked at his brother. "Well, check that off the to-do list."

Sam nodded in amazement. "You did it."

"I didn't do it alone."

"You think dad really climbed out of hell?"

"The door was open." He walked around to him. "If anyone's stubborn enough to do it, it'd be him."

He smiled and nodded a little. "Where do you think he is now?"

"I don't know."

"God Dean, I can't believe it. Our whole lives, everything was prepping us for this and now I don't know what to say."

Dean looked at the demon. "I do." He kneeled down. "That was for our mom, you son of a bitch."


	10. Chapter 10

Sam had taken the news of the crossroads deal hard, but surprisingly well. He vowed to get Dean out of the deal, to save his ass for a change. They had other things to worry about now; like that door releasing an army of demons. Who knows what escaped through there.

With Sam on the same page with the deal, it was time to get Kayla there. As soon as they were out of Wyoming they stopped at a hotel, everyone needed a good nights sleep. They got separate rooms, Dean already knew the devastation in her expression as she got ready for bed.

"I know this is bad." She didn't look at him. "But you have to forgive me for this Kayla, he's my little brother. I know I told you I'd stop trying to get myself killed but this was different and you know that. I'm sorry, but I know you get it whether you want to or not. You ran up in tears and kissed him when you heard his voice so I know you get it."

She nodded, her voice was almost too quiet to hear. "I get it."

"So I'm not one to talk about breaking your word but you said you'd stay no matter what. No matter what a jerk I was or how stupid I was being, and let's face it, this is probably as bad as I could have done."

"Probably." She walked over and hugged him. "But I meant it, you're stuck with me."

Dean smiled and stroked her hair; it was hard to think about this being the beginning of the end. "It's gonna be ok. We're gonna figure all this out."

She forced a smile but couldn't keep from crying. A year didn't seem so long now and she wasn't going to waste a second of it.


End file.
